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Google Voice: The New Coolest Thing Ever

What would you say if a company asked you if you’d like to have all of your home, work and cell phone calls, all your text messages, all your conference calls, all your voicemail -- pretty much anything you say or type into a phone -- ALL of it -- go thru their 3rd party service? You, like me, would probably say; Thanks but no thanks.

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But wait. What if they were going to give you a bunch of really cool features and capabilities in the process?  For free? Oh, and what if the company were Google?  Now you might be saying; Oh yeah?  Well... what kind of cool features?  I would.

Are you Interested in Google Voice?  Let us know in the comments.

Google Voice is the new ‘Coolest Thing Ever’ coming out of Google.  Basically, what they are doing is allowing you to centralize your multiple phone numbers (work/home/cell etc).  In the process they have come up with all kinds of handy tools and features that give endusers more control over their telecom than they have ever had before.

Essentially, here’s how it goes down.  You get a new Google assigned phone number.  Then, you route all of your other phone numbers thru that number.  So, your office phone, your work phone, your home phone - whatever. Google voice will allow your calls to selectively ring thru to any of the destination handsets you choose.  It really is a handy idea in concept.

Beyond that, Voice adds all kinds of cool little bonus features for example:

- You can selectively ring calls thru to multiple destinations.
- You can selectively block and screen calls
- You can send, receive forward and store SMS text messages
- Check your voicemail online, read it via email or text (you can even forward it)
- You can create personalized voicemail messages per contact
- You can group your contacts and manage their preferences on a group level
- Conference calling, call recording, call switching, 411 info -- all that kind of thing is in there.


Now, rephrase my original question and substitute Google for ‘a company’. Do you still flatly refuse? I’m thinking a lot of people will just say “Oh, it’s Google” and after that, “Well sure, that sounds fantastic! Wow. Man, Google is cool aren’t they?” So, my question is:  why is that?

Yes, Google Voice is cool.  Yes, I have signed up. Yes, I realize using it means everything I use it for becomes more data for Google to ‘organize’.  But I might do it anyway and I won’t be alone.

The way I see it, Google Voice users will be made up of three groups of people:
Group 1: Realize how much data the service gives Google access to, but trusts Google enough that it isn’t a concern.  These folks also elected Obama and only eat tuna clearly labeled dolphin safe. 

Group 2: Realize the data issue but don’t care, because they realize their ‘data’ is all over the place anyway - Google might as well have some (more) too. These are also the  people who told their classmates about Santa in the 3rd grade.

Group 3: No idea or thought paid to the matter of their data and who sees it. This the reality TV set.  As long as the Bachelorette is still on Monday night... they’re good to go.

Add those guys up and Google Voice will do just fine.  Even some of the people that refuse to use over privacy issues will trickle in after a while.  Peer pressure and the whole, ‘man I wish my phone did that’ factor is not to be lightly discounted (just ask Apple).

Google Voice does lots of neat stuff...  Sure you give up a little in the way of data privacy, but hey... selective call block?  How cool is that? I can go to the lake and have my office line ring to my cell?  Well that certainly has it’s practical applications.  We are, most of us, used to trading a little bad for a little good. So what’s it going to be for you? Are you Pro or Con on the Google Voice thing?  If you are, which of my groups do you fit into, or are you a group unto your own? 

GoDaddy Makes Twitter Part Of Domain Registration Process

GoDaddy is sometimes hard to take seriously; its marketing department seems to be run by the same bunch of teenage boys in charge of Axe commercials.  But GoDaddy is still the world's largest domain registrar, and it's poised to help Twitter with a new step in its registration process.

GoDaddy seems to have made the assumption that anyone wanting to create a website will also want to establish a presence on Twitter.  Adam Ostrow reports that it's actually "integrated Twitter registration into its domain manager, allowing you to see if the Twitter username that matches your URL is available, and if so, register it."

This says a great deal about how important Twitter has become to the people at GoDaddy (and indeed, you can find GoDaddyDeals, GoDaddyJobs, and GoDaddyGuy Twitter accounts, with that last one being rather popular and putting out about ten tweets per day). 

 

It says something about what GoDaddy thinks its customers want, too.

And since every single GoDaddy customer probably hasn't been switching back and forth between the domain registrar and Twitter while trying to name a company, this development may introduce Twitter to a lot of new people.

Things You Need to Know About Twitter Security

There has been more than one story in the news recently about Twitter accounts being hijacked. The most recent examples of note include the accounts of Britney Spears and famed blogger/entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki. These issues have highlighted some potential dangers of using the service, or really social networks in general. Have you encountered security issues with Twitter or other social networks? Share with WebProNews readers.

Amit Klein, CTO of Trusteer, a security firm, who counts the nation's largest direct bank, ING Direct, among its customers, feels that Twitter account hijacking is an issue that more people need to be aware of. WebProNews asked Klein a few questions about it, and the following is the resulting Q&A session.

WebProNews: Please talk a little bit about what is happening when Twitter (and other social network) accounts are hijacked.

Amit Klein: Typically, criminals hijack Twitter accounts in order to spread malware. That is, they abuse the hijacked accounts to post messages to all the "followers", with a link to a site that serves malware. In the Guy Kawasaki incident, for example (not a classic account hijacking, but still a malware spreading campaign), of the 139,000 followers, it is estimated that hundreds got infected. Earlier this year, accounts of 33 celebrities (among them Barack Obama - 1.6 million followers, and Britney Spears - 2.1 million followers) were hijacked.

WPN: How big of a problem is hijacking of Twitter (or other social network) accounts?

AK: This is quite bad, since a twitter account enables one to send malware links and plain spam to all followers. Of course - the more followers, the more widespread the attack is.

WPN: How common is it?

AK: Over the last 10 days, we've seen two high profile incidents, in which an account was abused to serve spam and malware. One is the Guy Kawasaki incident, and another is Britney Spears.

WPN: Has it been limited to "high profile" accounts, or is it becoming common for regular users as well?

AK: Obviously the media covers only the high profile attacks (celebrities, politicians, etc.). We believe that attacks against more average accounts are also taking place - quite possibly via mass production utilities.

WPN: What are the dangers that come with it?

AK: The most obvious danger is that a hijacked account can be used to serve malware and spam automatically to all a user's followers. An account can be hijacked a long time before it is abused. Attackers usually wait for the right opportunity to hit as many users as possible.

While twitter is currently used to spread malware, it's a perfect platform to commit fraud as well. Followers trust the messages that come from the person they follow, while in reality the message could be spam trying to convince followers to fall to a scam. A very simple example would be a request to donate a small amount of money to charity (for example to support the situation in Iran). The link would go to a fraudulent website that records credit card numbers. A high profile account that sends such a message could result in hundreds of thousands of compromised credit cards.

Another example is false rumors about companies and stock, which could result in pump and dump attacks.

WPN: What can users do to protect their accounts?

AK: To secure their Twitter presence, users needs to take several actions:

1. Protect their twitter credentials - users need to be vigilant and keep on the look out for Twitter phishing attacks, and pharming (DNS poisoning) attacks. Users can install client side security tools that ensure they are only providing their Twitter credentials to the genuine twitter website. In doing so, they will protect their credentials against keyloggers or malicious browser plug-ins ("man in the browser" attacks).

2. Control and protect their twitter information. As tempting and convenient as it may be, using 3rd party applications and services that enhance Twitter may increase the exposure of users to abuse. Every website which is allowed to automatically post to a user's Twitter account adds attack surface that criminals may exploit.

WPN: Please feel free to discuss anything else related to the subject that you feel people should know.

AK: Somewhat akin to phishing, is a practice called "twitter-squatting", wherein names of people/organizations are registered by fraudsters (or sometimes pranksters). It makes a lot of sense to monitor for such registrations, or better yet, to register brand names and individual names as early as possible to thwart such attacks.

Another threat associated with Twitter is abusing "Trending Topics" to serve malware. The attack involves sending many tweets (with malicious links) with some special keyword in them, so that this keyword will show up as a trend in the "Trending Topics" list at twitter.com. A user that views a sample tweet for this keyword and clicks on the malicious link will be served malware.

Both examples show how well established web attacks carry over into the twittersphere. Cyber squatting is a well-known practice on the web, which is now occurring in Twitter. Likewise, search engine poisoning is a common practice on the web, and now in Twitter also.

Security-wise, Twitter should be treated both as an individual website with its own potential security issues, and as a microcosm into which many existing web attacks can be mapped. This makes securing Twitter harder than protecting typical websites.

Wrapping up

WebProNews would like to thank Amit for sharing the above insight into Twitter security issues. Has your Twitter account ever been hijacked? Have you been a victim of Twitter abuse of any kind? Tell us about it.

Hashtags Now Linking in Twitter

Twitter has started linking hashtags in tweets to Twitter searches. A few other Twitterers have started to notice as well:


The move makes sense, considering that the hashtag phenomenon has reach tremendous popularity. They often appear in the trending topics.

The move also illustrates a greater emphasis being placed on Twitter Search, which only this year has become a focus of the company. It wasn't that long ago that it was added to the Twitter home page, and it is already sparking big interest in real-time search throughout the entire search industry.

Realty Company Sues Craigslist Over User-Generated Ads

Craigslist is reportedly being sued for trademark infringement. A real estate company in Texas called First Call Properties is saying that it began posting ads on Craigslist in March, and that after that, a competitor called AAA Apartment Locating began posting ads using phrases like "first call," "call first," and "call us first."

According to MediaPost, First Call named Craigslist, AAA and two individuals as defendants. The case has been sent to Federal Court.

Clearly, this is not the first time cases like this have made the news. It's just the first time that Craigslist has been on the receiving end of such a suit. Google has certainly been there. MediaPost's Wendy Davis points out that these cases don't usually get too far in court, but one between Google and Geico was settled.
 
"This is misguided in any number of ways: first, as long as the ad itself is not confusing such that the reader (or a moron in a hurry reader) would think that the ad is from the original company rather than the competitor, there's not likely to be a trademark violation," says Mike Masnick at TechDirt. "More importantly, even if there is a trademark violation, it should not be Google's liability, since they're simply the service provider. The liability (if there is any) would be on whoever created the ad."

There is another interesting aspect to the Craigslist case. According to MediaPost, First Call also says the AAA ads are libelous, and say things like "First Call Properties is a Scam," but Davis points to a section of the Communications Decency Act, which says sites can't be sued for libel based on user-generated content.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this case. Craigslist could settle, but based on past Google experience, it will probably just disappear.

Google Maps Gets You Ready For The Fourth

We'll admit it from the start; this development doesn't amount to Google's execs weeping while singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."  Still, a sort of self-promotional Fourth of July blog post from the search giant may be of interest to you as we head into the weekend.

If you haven't figured out how you're going to celebrate the Fourth, you may be able to get some ideas by using Google Maps.  Elaine Filadelfo of the Lat Long Blog Team writes, "If you'll be in DC . . . you can find a map of the various events going on throughout the holiday weekend and a map of fireworks shows throughout the entire region."

Or if you're planning to spend time elsewhere in the country, there are plenty of other events maps available, including ones for Baltimore, the Milwaukee region, Myrtle Beach New Hampshire, Northern Alabama, the San Francisco Bay Area, South Central Indiana, and Western Michigan.

Finally, if you intend to do your own thing, Filadelfo writes, "[Y]ou can make your own My Map to show friends how to get to your BBQ or where exactly in the park you plan to meet to catch the fireworks."

Anybody who's going to be close to his or her computer might keep an eye out for a special Google Doodle, too; last year's is pictured below.

 

FriendFeed Offers Real-Time Search

Today FriendFeed has launched a real-time search feature. Now when you perform a search on the service, you will be presented with real-time results as they roll in. That means you don't have to continuously refresh for the latest results.

If you're searching a particularly hot topic, you might find it hard to even browse results because they're coming in so quickly. Luckily FriendFeed has acknowledged this.

"While we were testing this internally, we could barely keep up with the non-stop activity regarding Michael Jackson (That's when we knew we needed a pause button)," says Jim Norris on the FriendFeed Blog.

You can access real-time search on FriendFeed by using the regular search box, but you can also use advanced search options and saved searches and still get real-time results. You can also embed a real-time search on your site:

On another FriendFeed-related note, the service released some new themes the other day. These allow users to customize their pages to suit their personal tastes with regards to aesthetics.

Google Blog Search Gets New Features and a Gadget

Google has launched several new features for Google Blog Search today. These are: RSS AND Atom feeds, an iGoogle gadget, a "hot queries" features, and a "latest posts" feature.

RSS and Atom Feeds

Google says the addition of the feeds has been its most requested feature for Blog Search. Users can subscribe to specific topics or stories. There is a "subscribe" heading in the left-hand column on the site, and underneath that are links for Atom and RSS.

iGoogle Gadget

The gadget lets users embed the Google Blog Search front page on their iGoogle homepage (or other pages that are compatible with iGoogle gadgets). Within the gadget, users can customize the topics they want to follow and "drill into" stories as they wish.

Hot Queries

Hot queries is a feature that has actually been added to the Google Blog Search front page. It's pretty much what it sounds like. It listsl searches that are currently popular in Blog Search. Google says it's "an easy way to quickly dive into the trending points of conversation on the web." If you're not a Twitter user, it's probably a good alternative to Twitter's trending topics.

Latest Posts

Latest posts is also an addition to the Google Blog Search homepage. It shows new posts from popular blogs. "While Hot Queries highlights what people are looking for, Latest Posts lets you find out about stories even before people start searching for them," says Google on the company blog.

I'd say the new features are an upgrade for Google Blog Search. Would you agree?

Google and Bing Tips for Site Architecture Issues

Google and Bing have both talked about site architecture issues lately on their blogs. Site architecture is an important part of search engine optimization, and crucial to ranking.

"You can have great content and a plethora of high quality inbound links from authority sites, but if your site’s structure is flawed or broken, then it will still not achieve the optimal page rank you desire from search engines," says Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center.

If you have time, and site architecture is not your strong suit, I would suggest reading both Microsoft's post and Google's, but to sum them up, here a few tips from each of them.

Bing's Tips

1. Use descriptive file and directory names

2. Limit directory depth

3. Limit physical page file size

4. Externalize on-page Javascript and CSS code

5. Use 301 redirects for moved pages

6. Avoid JavaScript or meta refresh redirects

7. Implement custom 404 pages

Google's Tips

Google starts out by talking about some site architecture myths, and also shares a couple slideshows (they talked about the topic at SMX London).

Finally, they offer these tips:

1.  Check that your robots.txt file has the correct status code and isn't returning an error

2. Keep in mind some best practices when moving to a new site and the new "Change of address" feature recently added to Webmaster Tools.

3. Review the settings of the robots.txt file to make sure no pages -- particularly those rewritten and/or dynamic -- are blocked inappropriately.

4. Make good use of the rel="canonical" attribute to reduce the indexing of duplicate content on your domain.

As I said, Google and Microsoft both have plenty more to say on the topic in their respective posts. The Bing post is actually the third installment in a series.

The Top MJ Song, Album & Lyric Searches

If you're tired of hearing about Michael Jackson already, I'm sorry, but he's still dominating the news and the web. He's still responsible for two of the trending topics on Twitter at this time (Michael Jackson and MJ).

You've probably read about the effect Michael's death has had on the web. It also had a huge impact on people downloading and buying his music. It had a big impact on searches as well. Hitwise has released some data about the top Michael Jackson songs, albums and lyrics that were searched for after his death.

"For retailers and publishers looking to prioritize merchandise and content, one measure to predict demand among consumers is through search data," says Hitwise's Heather Dougherty. "When looking at the variations of searches that included the search term 'michael jackson', we classified the top 1000 terms from the week ending June 27, 2009, to find the most popular song & album and lyric searches. Many searches were very broad, looking for the 'best' and 'top' michael jackson songs, but the specific songs & albums that were searched most were Thriller and Off The Wall. Searches for lyrics were also common, with the most popular being 'Beat It' and 'Billie Jean'."

Here are the top five in both categories.

Top 5 Songs & Albums

1. Thriller
2. Off The Wall
3. You Are Not Alone
4. Bad
5. Ben

Top 5 Lyrics

1. Beat It
2. Billie Jean
3. You Are Not Alone
4. Bad
5. Ben

I guess the real question is how long will this Michael Jackson mania last? On the whole, it will probably last for an eternity, much like that of Elvis, but as far as dominating the web, it's bound to simmer down sooner or later. How long do you think it will be before Michael Jackson is no longer a trending topic on Twitter? Share your thoughts.

7 Behavioral Targeting Privacy Principles

Today a group of key trade groups released comprehensive privacy principles for use and collection of behavioral data in online advertising. These are self-regulatory principles to protect consumer privacy in ad-supported interactive media that will require advertisers and Web sites to clearly inform consumers about data collection practices and enable them to exercise control over that information.

Groups involved are the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB), and of course the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

"Consumers deserve transparency regarding the collection and use of their data for behavioral advertising purposes. I am gratified that a group of influential associations – representing a significant component of the Internet community – has responded to so many of the privacy concerns raised by my colleagues and myself,” says Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour.

What Google Has to Say

Google recently testified in Washington regarding privacy and advertising. Highlighted in the testimony were three main topics:

- Google's main advertising products and the benefits Google believes online advertising brings to advertisers, online publishers, and individual Internet users

- Google's approach to privacy, specific steps that the company takes to protect users' privacy, and the release of interest-based advertising

- Ideas and recommendations for how to better protect Internet users' privacy with respect to advertising, as well as more generally

You can read the entire testimony here (pdf).

In a post on Google Public Policy Blog today, Google Managing Policy Counsel Pablo Chavez talked about the principles and Google's own behavioral-based or "interest-based" advertising.

"When we launched our own interest-based advertising product in March, we worked hard to include several innovative features to give users more control and information -- including ads labeled 'Ads by Google,' a tool called the Ads Preferences Manager (which lets users view, add, and remove the categories that are used to show them interest-based ads), and the choice to opt out of interest-based ads altogether," says Chavez.

"One of the key strengths of the principles is the fact that they apply to a broad range of companies participating in online advertising -- advertisers, publishers, and ad networks," adds Chavez. "Of course, for any self-regulatory effort to be effective, there has to be some kind of enforcement process. Between now and early 2010 -- when the principles are expected to be implemented -- the Better Business Bureau and Direct Marketing Association, two of the groups involved, will work to set up that process to make sure it has real teeth."

The Principles

So what are these principles? There are seven of them:

1. The Education Principle
2. The Transparency Principle
3a. The Consumer Control Principle
3b.The Consumer Control Principle (applies to service providers)
4. The Data Security Principle
5. The Material Changes Principle
6. The Sensitive Data Principle
7. The Accountability Principle

I won't get into all of the specific details of each one here, but you can read the entire document here if you are interested. Either way, it is good to see that these organizations are taking consumer privacy this seriously.

Twitter Unveils New Following and Followers Pages

Now when you click the Following and Followers links from your Twitter account you'll notice some major changes. Twitter has upgraded some of the design of the pages and added multiple new features.

What do you think of the new design and features? Tell us.



When you click on Following you'll notice a new pull-down menu which includes several options which include: @ message, unfollow them or send them a direct message. Below is an example of the new Following page in the new expanded view...



Sidenote: You may also be interested to know that our own Twellow service offers some great features for following other Twitterers of interest. In fact, there are features that frankly are lacking from the new Twitter interface, like the ability to search through your friends and followers. This can be especially convenient when you want to send a specific friend or follower a direct message or a mention. It comes in handy when you can't remember somebody's handle.

In addition those new features, When you click on Followers, Twitter now shows you a check mark beside the people who you are reciprocally following.  Like with the page I mentioned above you can @ message, direct message, follow (if your not doing so already) and the option to block. Below is an example of the new Followers page with the list view...



It should be noted that these features aren't just available on your profile, but on any profile you visit.

Don't worry, if your not a fan of the new expanded view (based on the comments below, most of you don't like it) you can always choose the list view which is very similar to the former layout.

Below is a snippet from the official Twitter blog about the upgrade...

"Instead of a basic list, there are now actions you can perform that provide a better overall experience. For example, you can turn on SMS, unfollow, mention, block, direct message, and more."

With these new changes and updates was there any real value added to the pages? I've talked to a few people and most feel the changes don't really bring anything better to the table. Some have even said they'll start using 3rd party apps to manage follows/unfollows.

What are your thoughts on the new changes? Tell us.

Hawaii Governor Vetoes Amazon Tax Law

Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle has vetoed a bill that would have required online retailers such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com to collect and pay sales tax on their affiliate programs within the state.

Earlier this week both Amazon and Overstock had notified affiliates in the state that they would be ending their programs there due to the new tax requirements.

"I am vetoing this bill immediately to help ensure Hawai'i is not economically hurt by legislation that was not well thought-out and would have negative consequences for non-profits such as the University of Hawai'i bookstore, and businesses throughout our State," Governor Lingle said. 

"I am hopeful by vetoing this bill that mainland-based companies will promptly restore their relationships with our State."

Amazon said in an email it would be willing to re-open its associates program in Hawaii if the tax law was vetoed.

"In the event that Hawaii's governor vetoes this tax collection scheme, and that veto is not overridden, or in the event the law eventually is repealed, we would certainly be happy to re-open our associates program to Hawaii residents," Amazon said.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also vetoed similar legislation that would have forced online retailers to collect and pay taxes on their affiliate programs within the state.

"I vetoed the majority vote tax increase passed by the legislature. With unemployment at an all time high, we should be doing everything we can to - keep jobs and create jobs - in California," Governor Schwarzenegger said.

"That is why my Administration immediately contacted Overstock.com when we learned of this news and, I am pleased to announce Overstock.com has reversed its decision and will continue to do business with affiliates here in California."

Amazon and Overstock have pulled the plug on affiliate programs in North Carolina and Rhode Island due to similar tax collection schemes. Both companies have signaled they would be open to restarting their programs in those states if the tax laws were repealed.

 

Microsoft Takes A Shot At Real-Time Search

Real-time search may (together with semantic and/or mobile search) be the next big thing; with some individuals putting out scores of public messages per day, we need a way to organize them.  And now, Microsoft's taken a step in the right direction by "bringing a bit of Twitter to Bing."

On the Bing Community Search Blog, a post of that title announced, "[W]e're unveiling an initial foray into integrating more real time data into our search results, starting with some of the more prominent and prolific Twitterers from a variety of spheres."

The post then continued, "[W]hen you search for these folks [sic] names in association with Twitter, you'll see their latest Tweets come up in real time on Bing's search results."

Mind you, the technology's not perfect; Wil Wheaton's most recent tweet is actually not about tacos, and since it is more than seven hours old, it's a little hard to understand how Bing's missed it.

There are also the limitations of the feature's user reach to consider (no John Cleese or Shaquille O'Neal?).

But this is still an interesting development that puts Bing ahead of its biggest competitors.  More advances may be on the way, too, as the official Bing post stated, "We think this is an interesting first step toward using Twitter's public API to surface Tweets in people search.  We'd love to hear your feedback as we think through future possibilities in real time search."

YouTube About to Become Higher Quality

YouTube has doubled the size of what users are now able to upload at a time. Until now, users were only able to upload 1GB, and now they can upload 2GB. This means longer videos with higher resolutions.

YouTube product manager Ryan Junee also points out that users can upload large HD files directly from their cameras. Essentially this means, we will start seeing a lot more quality (at least picture-wise) videos on YouTube.

Junee shares a couple tips for linking to and embedding HD versions of videos:

- To share a link to the HD version of your video, simply append &hd=1 to the end of the URL. This means the video will start playing in HD as soon as someone follows the link. Cool, huh?

-  To embed the HD version of a video on a website or blog, click the 'customize' button to the right of the embed box on the video page. Some options will appear; simply check 'play in HD'. The embed code that's generated will cause the video to start playing in HD as soon as a viewer clicks play. We recommend embedding HD videos at the largest size (853x505) for maximum enjoyment.

The increased uploading limit should do nothing but make YouTube a better place to watch videos. The more high quality content that is uploaded, the more people will be likely to stick around and watch more of it.

Bing Starts Summer Travel Photo Contest

The photos that rotate through Bing's homepage are, at least from an aesthetic standpoint (we mean no disrespect to the search engineers), one of the best things about the site; it's always a pleasure to stop by and see some interesting scene.  And now artistic types are getting a chance to contribute thanks to the new Bing Photo Contest.

The contest is for the most part straightforward - there's a submissions period (ending July 16th), followed by a couple rounds of voting (alternating with editorial selections).  The rules tell would-be participants to adhere to the theme of "summer travel" and steer clear of trademarks, logos, recognizable people, and objectionable content.

There's one interesting twist, though.  A Microsoft representative stated in an email to WebProNews, "[T]he contest is implemented through the Bing Photo Sharing Facebook application, where contestants can submit their photos and the Facebook community can vote on their favorites. . . .  Microsoft is running the contest on Facebook so contestants have an easy way to recruit their friends to vote for their photo."

Then here's the predictable, but still cool, end result: "The winning photo will be featured on the Bing homepage on Aug. 3."

So tell any photographers you know to grab their cameras and head to a sunny place.  Since statistics indicate that Bing just keeps getting more popular, this contest could generate a fair amount of publicity for the winner.

Facebook App for iPhone 3.0 98% Done

iPhone 3.0 users waiting for an updated Facebook app apparently won't have to wait too much longer. Its developer Joe Hewitt posted a Facebook note outlining the update's new features, and saying that it is 98% done.

Here's a screenshot of the note, listing the features:

As you can see from the above image, a lot of people like this. We'll see if the enthusiasm translates to actual use of the product.

In other Facebook news, the company is getting ready to roll out some new privacy settings. WebProNews sat in on a conference call discussing them earlier today, and from the sound of it, users are going to have a lot more control over what posts they share with what friends.

Not only will these new settings simplify privacy controls, but they will allow users to keep their status updates more relevant for their friends. You can read more about that and checkout Facebook's slideshow here.

Google Makes Language-Based Product Announcements

Today Google made a couple of announcements involving the expansion of offerings into more languages. They've announced that the new optimized SERP pages for iPhones, Android devices, and feature phones are now available in over 60 countries and 38 languages. In addition, the company has announced an advanced translation feature in the newest release of Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer.

The Mobile SERPs

"Whether you have a smartphone or a feature phone, if you have mobile internet access you can get the new mobile-optimized Google Search results pages on your phone just about anywhere in the world," says Google in a post on the Google Mobile Blog. "Just go to Google.com in your browser and do a search."

With the new format, users get improved support for universal search.

The Toolbar

The advanced translate feature on the toolbar automatically detects if the language of a page you’re on is different from your default language, and it allows you to translate it. "With one click, you can now instantly translate the page and all of its text will appear in the new language," says Google on the company's official blog.

A few other things to note about the toolbar: 

- If you go to another page in the same language, you'll continue to see translated text

- If a page has dynamic content (like Google Reader) you will get translations in real-time

- If you frequently translate pages in the same language, the toolbar will let you translate that language automatically

Languages the feature is available in include: Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

The toolbar can be downloaded here. More info can be found here in this help center.

Gmail Adds Drag and Drop Capability

Gmail is consistently rolling out new features for your emailing pleasure. Just a few months ago Gmail added some keyboard shortcuts and some new buttons to make labeling simpler. Today, Gmail is adding even more to their labeling arsenal.

In regards to email, are you a label or folder fan? Tell us.



New labels location

With the upgrade to Gmail you'll notice that your labels have a new home. Instead of your labels having their own section, now they've been grouped with your Inbox, Drafts, Chats and other "default" labels.

New label features

Gmail now only shows you the labels you use the most, and automatically hides the rest. If you ever find yourself needing a label that is hidden by Gmail just simply hit the "more" link to see the rest.

Gmail adds drag and drop

I do believe this is going to become one of my new favorite features of Gmail. It will allow me greater Inbox maintenance. Drag and drop essentially does the same thing as "Move to", with fewer steps. In addition to moving messages, you now have the ability to drag labels onto messages.



The best part about the labels is that with the new changes they're becoming more folder like... and we all know about folders vs. labels argument. In regards to folders vs. labels, Todd Jackson, Gmail Product Manger, told WebProNews the following...

"An interesting aspect of this launch is how it relates to the folders vs. labels question. We've always felt that labeling and searching are the easiest and most efficient methods for navigating email - yet we still had users who wanted folder-like functionality. This new version of Labels offers the best of both worlds, largely removing the need for a labels vs. folders debate."

With the new changes to the labels within Gmail this means the end of Right-side Labels. A post on the Gmail blog explains the reasoning for the early lab retirement...

"This is the first Labs feature we're retiring. (The idea behind Labs was always that things could break or disappear at any time or they might work so well that they become regular features. More on that soon...) Now that labels aren't in their own little box and take up much less space, moving them around the screen didn't seem as important. We realize quite a few of you used and liked Right-side Labels, so if you feel strapped for left nav screen real estate without it, try turning on Right-side Chat in Labs instead."

So, how do you feel about the new changes? Tell us.

Entertainment Sites Attract 55 Million Americans In May

Nearly 55 million Americans visited an entertainment news site in May 2009, representing a 7 percent increase over the previous year, according to a new report from comScore.

Online video has also played an increasingly important role for content in the category, with the number of videos viewed growing 53 percent in the past year.

"With more than one out of every four U.S Internet users visiting an entertainment news site each month, it's clear that following entertainment and celebrity culture has become a popular online pastime," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president.

 

"What's also interesting is that Americans are feeding their hunger for celebrity gossip by 'snacking' on these news updates throughout the workday. In fact, nearly half of all time spent on entertainment news sites comes from work computers."

Overall, Americans spent more than 893 million minutes or 15 million hours on entertainment news sites, with 44 percent of the total time spent during work.

More than a quarter of Internet users visited an entertainment news site in May. omg!, Yahoo's celebrity focused site, proved most popular with 20.6 million visitors, nearly doubling its audience in the past year. TMZ landed in the second position with 9.9 million visitors (up 7% over a year ago), followed by People with 8.2 million visitors.

Significant gains were seen by Usmagazine.com, up 325 percent to 6.5 million visitors, Entertainment Weekly, up 64 percent to nearly 4 million visitors, and The Insider, which grew 215 percent to 2.5 million visitors.

"May was one of the heaviest months on record for entertainment news consumption, but it will almost certainly be surpassed in June with the shocking news of Michael Jackson's death driving high volumes of traffic to these sites," added Mr. Flanagan.

"While most entertainment news sites will see gains in June, TMZ is primed for an especially big month as the first outlet to report the news, which generated thousands of inbound links to the site."

In April 2009, 34.8 million videos were viewed on entertainment news sites, an increase of 52 percent compared to a year ago. TMZ led the category with 2 million video viewers and 10.3 million videos viewed. More than 1.7 million viewers watched 3.8 million videos at omg!, while ETOnline attracted 1.5 million viewers who watched 3.9 million videos.

Facebook Takes Off In Brazil, India

Facebook's scoring some big gains in the world's second- and fifth-most populous countries.  New stats indicate that the social network's growth rate has started imitating the upright angle of a hockey stick in both India and Brazil.

Justin Smith reported, "Facebook nearly doubled in Brazil during May alone.  Its growth has continued in June, and today Facebook has just crossed the 1 million active user mark in Brazil for the first time ever - up 100% in the last 45 days."

As for the Indian side of things, he wrote, "Facebook exploded in May and June, doubling from 1.6 million to 3.2 million monthly active users in the country in the last 60 days."

And this second achievement is interesting for one other reason: Facebook actually made six Indian language versions available in early May.  So it might be seeing a fast and big payoff if there's any sort of causation effect.

Also, looking at the development as a whole, we noted while covering the Indian languages release that Orkut is popular in India and Brazil, so all of this recent growth appears to represent a serious challenge to Google.

The New Firefox Has Arrived

Update: Mozilla is showing the real-time downloads of the new Firefox. It should approach a million downloads (worldwide) very soon:

Original Article: Mozilla has unleashed version 3.5 of Firefox, which is being described as a "major update." The new version is said to significantly boost performance while supporting a wide variety of web standards.

"So much is happening on the Web right now, it's a great time for browsers. Firefox 3.5 brings together the most innovative Web technologies and delivers them in the most complete and powerful modern browser," says Mozilla CEO John Lilly.

What's New

Performance

Firefox 3.5 includes the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which Mozilla says delivers "unprecedented" performance with today's web apps. It's over twice as fast as Firefox 3 and ten times faster than version 2.

Open Video and Audio

Video and audio content can be played from within the browser without the need for plug-ins. Firefox 3.5 comes with the first native integration directly into the browser. "Now everyone can easily watch open format Ogg Theora videos," says the company in the announcement.

You can even right-click on videos and save them to your desktop, just as if it were an image.

Location Aware Browsing

Location Aware Browsing allows websites to ask you where you're located, and if you choose to share your location, it can use that information to find nearby points of interest and return additional, useful data like maps of your area.

Before you freak out, it's all optional - Firefox doesn't share your location without your permission. In fact, this version of Firefox is more focused on privacy than ever.

Privacy Controls

With this version, you can use the new "private browsing" mode (available in the tools menu), and nothing will be stored during your browsing session. There is also a "forget this site" feature, that lets you remove "every trace" of a site from your browser.

If users want to remove all private data or activity from the past several hours, they can "clear recent history."

To see these new features (and more) in action, watch the following clip:

Firefox 3.5 is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It's also available in over 70 languages. It can be downloaded from here.

Facebook Talks new Privacy Features

WebProNews just sat in on a conference call and webcast with Facebook, where the social network's upcoming changes to privacy settings were discussed. These were designed to give users more control over what they share with whom. Are you looking forward to privacy changes with Facebook? Share your thoughts.

The features were discussed a bit last week, but were elaborated much more in this discussion. The company made clear up front that the changes were not related to talk of a Facebook payment system, and have nothing to do with advertising or info that Facebook will make available to advertisers. Users still have control over what info is shared with advertisers.

Here is the slideshow that was presented:

Facebook Privacy Enhancements View more presentations from guest5f7bf4.

Facebook says its mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. The new privacy controls enhance this and will allow people to share with as narrow or as broad of an audience as they want.

Facebook discussed the new features as broken down into three principles:

1.Control
2 Simplicity
3 Connecting

The changes were initiated by pain points that users made known to the company. The company acknowldged that privacy settings can add up and pile up over time, and not always be as clean a process as one would like. They wanted to simplify this.

Control

Facebook says when people can easily control the audience, they share more and more meaningfully. There is definitely something to that statement. It's a relevancy issue just as much as it is a privacy one. Certain status updates may be more appropropriate for a certain group of people.

Facebook has removed regional networks. The company says that these generated a lot of confusion and reduced user control. People were joining networks that they were not sure who all was in. It is a fragmented user experience. They say something like 50% of people don't even join them. They also said the concept doesn't really fit into the new model.

Simplicity

The new settings make privacy more simple. You can choose between the same set of privacy options throughout different features. There is a single set of privacy controls wherever you are on the site. If you make a change in one place, it stays consitent throughout the entire site. There will be a universal lock icon (as shown in the top image), so that you always know where you can adjust settings. They are consolidating six different privacy pages. For each setting, there is a question mark so you can tell exactly what each thing is for.

As far as sharing options, you can: 

- share with everyone

- share with friends and authenticated networks

- share with friends of friends

- share with your friends (like always)

- customize who all you are sharing with when you have specific pieces of content for sharing with a specific audience

Connecting

During the connecting part of the dicussion, they talked about the transition period, which is definitely important, considering how upset some users got after the big redesign of Facebook.

They are testing six different transition tools that users will see when the settings roll out. Basically, the company is just testing different ways to give users the ability to opt in to settings. They want to make sure that people really understand the changes that are happening.

When Facebook rolls them out, users will sign on to the site, see a transition tool, then they will be asked about settings. Once they provide their preferences, they will get a confirmation. Of course, settings will always be able to be adjusted on a post-by-post basis via the publisher box.

With regards to the "everyone" option, this is divided into two distinctions - minors and adults.

The new privacy settings and controls are still in the testing stages and will be rolling out soon. You're probably wondering if info will be indexable by search engines. Facebook says "It's certainly something we've talked about, but it's not like that at this time."

What do you think of the new privacy options? Do you intend to be more open or more private with your updates? What will be your default setting? Please share.

StumbleUpon Can Get You Big Traffic and Lots of Links

Facebook and Twitter have both been proven to be valuable sources of traffic to many sites, but another potential source that you might be overlooking is StumbleUpon. It is true that in the past, StumbleUpon has been presented as a traffic tool, but the results weren't always what webmasters and marketers had hoped for.

StumbleUpon has been changing though. Last year, the company's founders bought it back from eBay and have been busy ever since. They've been listening to users and playing catch up to the rest of the social media world and are now doing more for sites' traffic than ever before. Have you seen much traffic from StumbleUpon in the past? How about more recently? Tell WebProNews readers.

At the recent SMX Advanced show in Seattle, WebProNews had a discussion on this very topic with Internet Marketing consultant Brent Csutoras. You can watch the entire conversation in the following clip.

More WebProNews Videos

In the past, Brent says you would get maybe three to five thousand visitors from StumbleUpon. "It was interesting, but it was just a little bit of traffic. It wasn't enough to really drive a lot of time spent within the site," says Csutoras. Users were only getting random content, and it wasn't all that great for links and targeted traffic, although it was always easy to see the potential of the technology.

Now since StumbleUpon has become more web-based this year with features like a web-based toolbar, a navigational section with popular & related content, StumlbeUpon buttons for webmasters to add to their sites, etc., the company has been driving people to participate and interact with other users more.  

According to Csutoras, StumlbeUpon went from 5 million users last year to 8 million this year, and they are now drawing a more social userbase that is prone to sharing content.

So What Does This Mean for Your Traffic?

Well, Csutoras says StumbleUpon is now capable of sending anywhere from thirty to two hundred thousand unique visitors over a period of a week. He knows this because he's seen it (the example is mentioned in the interview).

Fortunately for webmasters and marketers, it doesn't end there either. When StumbleUpon users are stumbling through content and they come across your content and like it, they are apt to share it through another network like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. That's the beauty of the social web (and also a good reason to include as many sharing options on your content as possible).

If you weren't already getting enough links from StumbleUpon, this opens the door for many more links as your content is spread from network to network - from reader to reader. This is basically (at least partially) where social media fits into the SEO equation.

Get Users to Stumble Through Your Content

StumbleUpon also has a partnership program, which Csutoras says is likely to expand (and apparently requires you to have 3,000 indexed pages within StumbleUpon). What this program does is allow you to place StumbleUpon's technology on your site, so that readers can go through more of your content without actually being directed back to StumbleUpon at all. That means more time spent on your site.

Interesting Social Advertising Opportunities

StumlbeUpon also has a program where you can directly advertise through stumbles. Earlier this year, I interviewed the company's VP of Business Development, John Bryan about this. Advertising through stumbles, means people get to vote ads up and down just like any other content. Not a bad way to gauge how effective an ad is.

Wrapping Up

So the moral of the story is, StumbleUpon has the potential to send some good traffic your way. It's probably not going to happen all by itself though. You're going to have to push it a little bit, and I don't mean by spamming StumbleUpon. Create good content that people want to share. It's the same principal that applies to every other facet of social media (and search engine) marketing. People will share what they like. Give them something to like. Also make stumbling a clear option on your content. Give them that button.

How have you encouraged users to stumble your content? Tell us what has or hasn't worked for you.

Boston Globe Rolls Out Digital Newspaper

The Boston Globe announced today the launch of GlobeReader, a new digital version of the newspaper that can be read offline or online.

With GlobeReader the content of the Globe is downloaded daily to a subscriber's desktop, laptop or netbook, in a format aimed at resembling the look and feel of the print version of the Boston Globe.  A preview edition is currently available to Globe subscribers. Plans for further expansion are in the works.

"GlobeReader is another important step toward our goal of being able to publish The Boston Globe on whichever platform our readers and advertisers value, and builds on the success we've seen with other platforms such as mobile devices and Kindle," said Susan Hunt Stevens, SVP digital.

Features of the GlobeReader include:

•  It's organized into sections familiar to Globe readers.  
• The navigation is easy and clear. 
   
•  Scanning for stories or photos is fast.  
• Articles are set in the same type font as the paper and the page design is understated and clean. 

Readability features include adjustable type size and screen size.

The Globe's new digital newspaper is powered by Adobe Flex and Adobe Air, part of the Adobe Flash Platform. While online GlobeReader users can search Boston.com for more features such as slide shows, videos and interactive graphics.

"Leveraging Adobe AIR, the new GlobeReader showcases the future of digital publishing and helps The Boston Globe to deliver a highly readable experience with a closer, more consistent connection to subscribers regardless of what computer operating system they use," said David Wadhwani, general manager of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe Systems.

 

Amazon Ends Affiliate Program In Hawaii

Amazon.com is continuing with its policy to abandon its affiliates program in any state that even considers legislation that would force the online retailer to collect and pay sales tax.

This time Amazon has eighty-sixed its affiliate program in Hawaii. Amazon informed its affiliates Monday, in an email, it was ending its relationship with residents in Rhode Island over a tax collection law passed by the general assembly.  The company has also terminated its affialte program in North Carolina due to similar proposed legislation.

Amazon notified it Hawaii affiliates of its decision in an email. "We were forced to take this unfortunate action in anticipation of actual enactment because of the uncertainty and timing of a veto, and the possibility that a veto could be overridden. The governor has until July 15 to veto the bill but, as indicated, the bill has an effective date of July 1," the e-mail said.

"In the event that Hawaii's governor vetoes this tax collection scheme, and that veto is not overridden, or in the event the law eventually is repealed, we would certainly be happy to re-open our associates program to Hawaii residents."

Other states considering similar legislation include California and Connecticut. New York passed such legislation last year, and Amazon has  begun collecting sales tax there as it challenges the law in court.

"It's one of those things that on the surface looks interesting, but we believe the states are just shooting themselves in the foot," Rebecca Madigan, the founder of an affiliate trade group called the Performance Marketing Alliance told The Wall Street Journal.

 

Google Launches New, Cheaper AdWords API

Google has launched a new version of the AdWords API. The company says this version offers more speed, scale, and flexibility to developers at a lower cost.

The AdWords API lets developers build apps that interact with the AdWords platform. With the API, users can:

- Automatically generate keywords, ad text, and destination URLs

-  Integrate AdWords data with their inventory system to manage campaigns based on stock

-  Develop additional tools and applications to help them manage accounts

With AdWordsAPI v2009 comes a revised set of terms and conditions. "This change includes a more comprehensive explanation of our policy regarding the commingling of data, and also redefines the required minimum AdWords functionality for third party developers," explains AdWords API Product Manager Doug Raymond. A list of the required and optional features can be found here.

The new version also comes with a new rate sheet. "We've lowered the cost of v2009 for the average developer by approximately 20% through reducing the unit cost of our most commonly called operations -- add criteria, add, and set adgroup," says Raymond.

The new version of the API is still in beta, and Google is asking developers to sign up for access. Documentation can be found here.

Raymond says that over the next few months, Google will introduce new features and additional AdWords functionality to the API. Look for things like partial failure acceptance, asynchronous calls, keyword tools, and MCC & reporting functionality.

The Web Feels The Impact of Michael Jackson's Death

Who is the most famous person in the world? A simple question with thousands of possible answers.

Some might say the Pope while others might say President Obama. It's total speculation; an argument can be made for just about any well-known person.

Could "The King of Pop" have been considered the most famous person in the world? With global album sales somewhere between 700-750 million, a career that spanned nearly 50 years, two widely covered pedophilia charges and various charitable contributions... Michael Jackson, quite possibly, was the most famous person in the world.

His popularity caused big problems for some of the Internet's more popular sites as rumors began to swirl about his rumored death.

Famed celebrity news site TMZ was the first to break the news of Michael Jackson's death. People from all over the world rushed to the site to see the news for their own eyes. Due to the mass amounts of traffic TMZ began experiencing erratic downtimes, which left people searching other sites for confirmation.

AOL, owner of TMZ, released the following statement about the downtime...

"Today was a seminal moment in Internet history. We've never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth. Historically, celebrity news prompts a worldwide outpouring with several key consumer behaviors – searching, sharing and reacting to the news followed by online tributes has become the modern way to mourn. Princess Diana was the first notable Internet example. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett are the latest.

With other sites such as CNN reporting that Jackson was still alive but in a coma, that only added fuel to the fire, as people wanted to know the truth. Sadly in the end, TMZ was correct.



Michael Jackson has also been immortalized on the popular FamousDeadDB.com  website.

The Michael Jackson ripple effect wasn't just felt by TMZ, shortly after Internet users made their way to Perez Hilton's train-wreck of a blog only to be greeted by the following despicable post by the blogging diva...



You can see that Perez was pretty much calling Michael Jackson a liar. It should be noted that shortly after it was confirmed by multiple sources, Perez updated the post to hide his travesty of a post.

Twitterers weren't pleased with the post, and #unfollowperez became a trending topic on the famed microbloggnig site.

Some of the major news corporations showed marked slowdowns; Keynote Systems had the following to say about the traffic phenomenon...

"Beginning during the late afternoon Pacific Time major news sites, including those of ABC, AOL, LA Times and CBS all started to show marked slowdowns in performance. Beginning at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time until 8:00 p.m. Eastern, the following sites showed became nearly unavailable (down to nearly 10% availability): ABC, CBS, LA Times, AOL, CNN Money.

Beginning at 5:30pm (EDT), the average speed for downloading news sites doubled from less than four seconds to almost nine seconds. During the same period, the average availability of sites on the index dropped from almost 100% to 86%. The index returned to normal by 9:15pm (EDT)."

With the news of Jackson's death, people turned to the web like never before. Large traffic spikes were documented, the likes of which have never been seen before.

Below you can see a chart from Nielson, which shows the Jackson death discussion far exceeded those of the inauguration of President Obama and the swine flu.



In the UK it was documented that Twitter had its busiest day, EVER. The traffic spike might not be as large as expected, but this is probably due to the time difference between the US and the UK. You can see the Hitwise graph below...



Yesterday I told you about how Michael Jackson was dominating the Twitter top 10 trending topics, where he held nine at that time. Almost a full 24 hours later and he still holds four of the ten.

The death of Michael Jackson also had other sharing their condolences via Twitter...











The death of Michael Jackson was met with many different opinions; some are looking back at his music career why others only see his alleged wrong doings. However you choose to remember him you can't deny the fact that his death had a huge impact all over the world... especially the Internet.

Twitter Gets Back to Oprah-Like Numbers in June

Last month, there was a lot of hubbub about Twitter's growth flat lining. Matthew Daines, the lead developer of our own Twitter app, Twellow, showed me a graph that he put together from the user IDs he found in the Twitter API, based on when they registered with Twitter.

What Matthew found was that there was a significantly larger number of new registrations in April - the month Oprah joined, which caused a well-publicized surge in new Twitter users. So naturally, the next month didn't see as many new users flocking to Twitter, but it was still i decent increase from the month before Oprah joined.

Daines has now shared a new graph with me, which seems to suggest Twitter is still growing just fine. June shows that new registrations are right at what they were in April, when Oprah joined, which means that there are quite a few new people.

We should be able to get a really good idea of Twitter's growth when we can take a look at July's numbers in a month. At that point, we can see which direction the trend goes. I think we're going to see growth though. Take a look at this other graph Daines shared with me, which shows the number of tweets. It looks like there is a lot more tweeting going on.

"Looks like the total tweets chart shows that the claim last month that Twitter traffic had come to a stop was not quite accurate," says Daines. "The total tweet numbers are not exact, but should be within a few hundred thousand."

So, do you think we will consider to see significant Twitter growth as the year goes on? Or do you believe Twitter as already peaked? Share your thoughts.

Search Engine Ads More Helpful Than Banner Ads

Over one-third of Americans (37%) say that television ads are the most helpful in making their purchase decision while 17 percent say newspaper ads are most helpful and 14 percent say the same about Internet search engine ads, according to a new AdweekMedia/Harris Poll.

Radio ads (3%) and Internet banner ads (1%) are considered to be the least helpful by many people. Over one-quarter of Americans (28%), say that none of these types of advertisements are helpful to them in the purchase decision making process.

Half of people aged 18-34 (50%) say televsion ads are the most helpful while 31 percent of those 55 and older say they find newspaper ads to be the most helpful. There is also a small regional difference. Forty percent of Southerners say they find television ads most helpful, while only 33 percent of Midwesterners feel the same.

Nearly half of Americans (46%) say they tend to ignore banner ads. Internet search engine ads fare better (17% of people ignore), television ads (13%), radio ads (9%), and newspapers ads (6%). Nine percent of Americans say they do not ignore any of these types of ads.

There are age and regional differences. Half of those aged 35-44 and 51 percent of Midwesterners say they ignore Internet banner ads compared to 43 percent of 18 -34 year olds as well as Easterners and Southerners. Among Americans 18-34 years old (20%) say they ignore Internet search engine ads while 20 percent of those 55 and older say they ignore television ads.

Bing Gaining On Google, Yahoo

Different data-tracking firms almost always report different statistics, and this has led to a fair number of confusing did-it-or-didn't-it-gain-share situations.  Bing seems to be solidly in the black, however, as new StatCounter info supports the idea that the new engine is doing well.

Doubters may remain - and in the long-term, may or may not win the argument - but comScore and Hitwise (and StatCounter, for that matter) had already suggested that Bing's gaining on Google and Yahoo.  The latest report adds a nice bar graph to the evidence pile.

As you can see, it seems that Google's consistently losing share (0.59 percent between April and June).  Yahoo's down from its April levels, too (0.23 percent).  In fact, of the top three search engines, only Microsoft's offering cornered more market share in the last couple of months.

And although a rise of 1.02 percent doesn't sound like a lot, if you look at the figure with respect to Microsoft's starting point of 7.21 percent, it represents an increase of 14.1 percent.

Data-tracking firms that used to be on Microsoft's bad side are liable to get invited to corporate parties if these sorts of trends continue.

Mobile Marketing Will Likely Become Unavoidable

A recent study showed that spending for mobile advertising was expected to reach over $760 million in 2009. That's about 20% more than last year. Do you dedicate any portion of your budget to mobile marketing? Let WebProNews readers know.

Mike McDonald recently cited these numbers when he told us why we should be marketing via mobile. It seems that marketers are going to have little choice but to market via mobile in the future as devices get smarter, and become must-have items for more people.

People have their mobile devices with them 18 hours a day, Mike Wehrs, President and CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) recently told WebProNews. "Why wouldn't you want to be able to deliver relevant information to them?" he added. "Because if you do it well, it doesn't become an advertisement. It becomes information that they were looking for anyway."

The MMA has now released the latest version (pdf) of its US Consumer Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-carrier mobile content services. These are essentially the guidelines for services like text messaging (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS), shortcode programs, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and the mobile web.

This is the first version of the guidelines that consolidates best practices for the four major US wireless service providers: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. The MMA calls it a milestone toward continued growth of mobile marketing.

Marketers and anybody dealing with the mobile industry should really check out the lengthy document (pdf). Here are some guidelines from it, although they really don't begin to scratch the surface of the amount of information found within the actual document.

"The latest MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines are an industry milestone toward meeting the ecosystem’s need for a concise yet comprehensive set of rules at a time when rapid growth increases the challenge of following multiple playbooks," says Wehrs. "By providing a single, industry-standard reference, the new guidelines free carriers, technology companies, brands, media companies and consumer advocates to focus on protecting consumers, providing the optimal user experience and continuing the mobile channel’s growth."

This week, the MMA also announced its new global board members. For an interesting video interview with Wehrs on mobile marketing, check this out.

Are you doing any mobile marketing yet? Tell us how it's going. 

iPhone 3GS Drives Blog Buzz In June

Apple was the top hardware manufacturer site in May 2009, with 55.7 million unique visitors and an average time spent per person of 1 hour and 14 minutes, according to a new report from Nielsen Online.

Excitement surrounding the new iPhone 3GS sent blog mentions up 1,226 percent week-over-week on June 8, the day of the announcement. After the initial announcement, buzz dipped but picked up again after the phone became available on June 19, with blog mentions more than doubling compared to the prior week.

More than a third (37%) of online U.S. adults own a game console, while 10 percent plan on purchasing a new console in the next 12 months.

Game console brands also proved popular online destinations in May. Among game console brands, Nintendo had the largest unique audience with 2.2 million, while Sony Computers Entertainment was the fastest growing, increasing 16 percent year-over-year.

Among the current game consoles, Nintendo Wii was the most popular console owned by online adults, with 14.3 percent. Playstation 2 continues to be the top console owned, despite being an older console, with 17.3 percent of online adults in possession of one.

 

LinkedIn Founder on the Future of Social Data

LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman is featured in a video from Nokia's IdeasProject.com. He talks about new products being created from the social data that is available on the Internet.

Ideas Project was designed to bring together influential "big thinkers" to contemplate the ideas that matter most to the future of communications. "It is a new kind of conversation platform aimed at uncovering the connections between these thought leaders and their disruptive ideas," Nokia says in a release.

Hoffman certainly knows a thing or two about social data. LinkedIn is an incredibly successful social network focused on business networking.

"Once you have all these piles of data, people will build products out of the synthesis of this information," explains Hoffman. "I think the Web 2.0 platform concerning actual identities and relationships is really just at the beginning stages of its growth--we're not close to even the midpoint of this development."

"As the founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman redefined online professional networking, making a seminal contribution to the rise of social media," says Valerie Buckingham, Director of Technology Marketing, Nokia. "Now Hoffman is once again setting his sites on the future, exploring how companies will use the growing base of online social networking information as a foundation for business innovation."

Ideas Project also features ideas from Robert Scoble, Jeff Jarvis, and a number of other influential thought leaders. What do you think of the project?

Flickr Takes A Shine To Twitter

It may have taken the Yahoo property a little while, but Flickr's now fully embracing Twitter.  Today, a "Flickr 2 Twitter" feature launched, and Flickr also committed itself to keeping and updating a Twitter account.

Let's start with the Flickr 2 Twitter development.  As a Flickr representative explained in an email to WebProNews, Flickr 2 Twitter is "a new way for Flickr members to easily post images to Twitter."

The representative then provided some instructions, continuing, "To use Flickr 2 Twitter, members need to first authorize Flickr to post to their Twitter accounts.  Once authorized, members will be able to tweet photos from the 'Blog This' button on their photo page or from their mobile devices.  Mobile uploading is possible once members enable their Upload by Email settings (unique Flickr email upload address + '2twitter')."

The sort of tweet that will result can be seen below.  Insert your own "worth 1,000 words vs. 140 characters" joke here.

Then there's the matter of Flickr's new Twitter account, which as you might have guessed, is @Flickr.  Although its first tweet appeared on the 17th, Flickr only officially committed to the account today.

Better Ad Targeting on Facebook with Keyword Suggestions

Facebook has begun offering keyword suggestions for it's ads. This could go a long way to help advertisers better target Facebook users.

When a user goes to create an ad on Facebook, they begin the process by designing the ad. Here they select the landing page, the ad copy, and an optional image. Then they are presented with the targeting section, which now features the keyword suggestions.

The feature was noticed by All Facebook's Nick O'Neill, who stumbled upon it while testing features of the Facebook advertising system. "While it may not appear to be a big deal, this feature could help significantly increase revenue as each advertisement ends up with a broader reach," says O'Neill.

That's a good point. It could be not only be good for advertisers, but Facebook as well. It could give Facebook advertising more weight and get more advertisers on board as a result. Add that to a possible web-wide Facebook payment platform, and Facebook might be able to make some good money.

The keywords are based on information users list in their profiles like activities, favorite books, tv shows, movies, etc. It can be hard to know what people are listing, so the suggestions could be quite useful.

Study: Most People Go Online to Socialize

I probably don't have to tell you that people are very interested in socializing online these days. New research from PR Agency Ruder Finn shows that 72% of people go online just to become part of a community.

If that's not a testimonial for social media marketing, I don't know what is. The agency's research is actually a look at online behavior and user intent.

"Intent is the new demographic," says Kathy Bloomgarden, Ruder Finn co-CEO. "Delving deeper into the underlying motivations of online behavior is critical to developing proactive strategies. Just being online is not enough to leverage digital channels to drive business imperatives. Audiences must be targeted based upon their intent."

Michael Schubert, Chief Innovation Officer overseeing digital strategy at Ruder Finn says, "The way the Internet has allowed us to share knowledge laterally instead of up the chain of command requires a new way of thinking about our online communications. The Intent Index underscores the importance of knowing what people seek, and how we, as communicators, can intersect with what they're looking for."

The Intent index is based on a study that asked participants how frequently they go online for 295 different reasons. The index is updated quarterly.

I'll leave you with a bunch of statistics:

- More than twice as many people go online to socialize (81%) than to do business (39%) or shop (31%).

- 72% of people go online just to become part of a community.

- Seniors are going online today for the same reasons younger people are; to have fun (82%) and to socialize (80%).

- More people go online to connect via a social networking site (41%) than to post comments or opinions (34%).

- More people go online to be entertained (82%) than entertain others (48%).

- People seek education and entertainment: most people go online both to learn (88%) and have fun (83%).

- Almost half of people (47%) go online to learn to improve themselves and nearly one-third (31%) to find self-help experts or books.

- The desire to learn drives people to the Internet; top areas are new subjects (68%), the world (65%), a disease or condition (61%), eating healthier (55%) and managing finances (37%).

- Three times as many people go online to compare prices (66%) rather than people via dating sites (21%).

- One-third of people (34%) go online to purchase an item; tops are household items (49%), electronics (45%); music (35%), movies (29%), and school/work supplies (29%).

- More men (42%) than women (36%) go online to do business.

- 55% of women go online to find venues for personal expression compared to only 43% of men.

- 44% of people go online to create or update blogs and 42% of people go online to read other people's blogs.

-  Nearly half (48%) go online to be invisible on instant messaging, 29% to create an avatar and 28% to be somewhat different.

- Women (48%) are much more likely than men (39%) to go online to advocate for an issue or position.

Yahoo Names New VP Of Marketing

Yahoo has named Penny Baldwin as its senior vice president, of global integrated marketing and brand management.

Baldwin takes on the newly created position immediately and reports to Yahoo's chief marketing officer, Elisa Steele.

Baldwin will oversee the company's global brand efforts, and is responsible for developing and carrying out Yahoo's brand marketing including brand management, corporate messaging, along with integrated marketing and advertising.

"One of Yahoo!'s greatest assets is its brand," said Steele. "Our integrated, global approach is critical to our success and we have a deep business commitment to fulfill our promise to our users, customers and partners.

"Penny is uniquely qualified to lead the effort and her leadership, experiences, knowledge and skills are excellent additions to the Yahoo! marketing team."

She brings with her 20 years of global brand strategy development and most recently was a managing partner of Young & Rubicam, where she was responsible for leading the efforts of large global teams across industries.

Her experiences span technology, retail, packaged goods, finance, travel, gaming, wireless communications, entertainment and sports marketing.

"This is a seminal moment for the Yahoo! brand and for the business overall," said Baldwin.

 

YouTube Advertising Options Expand

Links within YouTube ads have, until now, done little more than send viewers to other YouTube videos.  And so they've represented the equivalent of infomercials that didn't supply telephone numbers - the home audience is only encouraged to keep watching, not complete a purchase.  But new Call-to-Action overlays address this issue.

Advertisers can now get their YouTube ads to link to other sites.  The option doesn't cost anything extra, and it's been made about as simple as can be.

A post on the YouTube Biz Blog explains, "First, run a campaign to promote your video on YouTube.  Then, go to the Video Details page under My Videos and fill out the fields in the section marked 'Call-to-Action overlay.'  All you have to do is include a short headline, ad text, a destination url, and upload an optional image, and the overlay will appear whenever someone watches your video."

A still example's visible below.

It's likely that this minor tweak will get existing advertisers considerably more excited about YouTube.  It might even be enough for other companies to reallot their advertising budgets.  We don't expect that YouTube will see any significant (or even measurable) traffic drops, either.

Online Publishers On Board For Bigger Ads

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) announced today a group of brands that have started using its new larger ad units across OPA member sites.

The new ad units were originally announced in March with the goal of boosting creative advertising online that meets the needs of marketers by better integrating their messages.

A total of 37 OPA member companies are making the units available, up from the 24 originally announced.

The OPA ad units include:

The Fixed Panel: 336 wide x 700 tall, remains constant as the user scrolls to the top and bottom of the page

The XXL Box: 468 wide x 648 tall, opens for seven seconds to 936 wide x 648 tall with 1/24x frequency

The Pushdown: 970 wide x 418 tall, opens to display the advertisement and then after seven seconds rolls up to 970 wide x 66 tall, with 1/24x frequency.

Some of the brands implementing the new OPA ad units include Bank of America, which will run the Pushdown ad on CNN.com and Time.com. The Cleveland Clinic is running the Fixed Panel ad on NYTimes.com and Mercedes-Benz will run various OPA units on FOXSports.com, Retuers.com, and The Wall Street Journal website.

"The new ad formats really struck a chord with the industry because they represented a change in the way marketers and agencies think about digital ads and new ways of delivering engaging brand campaigns," said Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishers Association.

"The caliber of the brands actively leveraging the new formats is impressive and our members are working hand-in-hand with agencies and marketers to provide the right tools for them to connect effectively with their readers."

In May 2009, the 37 publishers had a combined reach of 132.1 million visitors, or 68 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience.

 

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